User:Jonathangaunt

Jonathan Gaunt

Born in Huddersfield, UK in July 1964 BA (Hons), Diploma Landscape Architecture Diploma Golf Course Architecture (European Institute of Golf Course Architects)

Jonathan has been a golf course architect all his working life. He set his sights on becoming a golf course architect at an early age and soon became a proficient golfer at County level (handicap 3 at 18 years) in his home town of Leeds in West Yorkshire, UK.

In 1985 Jonathan began his career as a Landscape Architect (after completing his Undergraduate degree) with Travers Morgan Engineers in London, designing and supervising landscaping projects for new road schemes for the Highways Agency.

He qualified as a landscape architect in 1987 at Leeds Metropolitan University (with a Postgraduate Diploma in Landscape Architecture) and in 1993 went on to achieve a Diploma in Golf Course Architecture, with the British Institute of Golf Course Architects. He has been a Senior Member of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects since 1997.

In 1987 he travelled to St Andrews in Scotland to begin working for Brian D. Pierson Golf Course Contractors Ltd at the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (Jubilee Course). Here, his responsibilities included on-site contract supervision and went on to work at other courses such as the St. George’s Hill, Surrey and Goodwood Golf Club, West Sussex – all projects were designed by renowned British golf course architect, Donald Steel.

At the age of 25 (in 1989), Jonathan designed his first golf course - the highly successful 27-hole Chesfield Downs Family Golf Centre in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Then, having established his own architectural practice in London in 1990, he went on to design another 17 new golf courses including Linden Hall Hotel & Spa in Northumberland, which, in 1998, was voted amongst the top 10 new courses in the UK by Golf World Magazine and Wokefield Park in Berkshire, for which (also in 1998), he was presented with the British Association of Landscape Industries Award for Soft Landscape Construction.

In 1998 Jonathan co-established G&M Ltd and over a period of eight years, the company designed several new golf courses across Europe, including Los Barrancos de la Zagaleta in Spain, Castleknock in Ireland and Kaskada in Czech Republic.

Jonathan has designed and/or built more than 30 new golf course projects throughout the world and has earned a considerable reputation for imaginative and challenging golf course design. These projects range from high profile golf resort courses, with housing developments or luxury hotel courses with housing development, often in new and emerging markets; to golf course restoration projects, where a sense of history of the place and of the game of golf have been crucial. Other projects include the sensitive reconstruction or renovation works on important historic courses seeking to update and stay competitive, for example, West Hill, Worplesdon and Ferndown (all in UK).

Jonathan has also established design collaborations with respected golf course architects and golf professionals, namely Donald Steel, Eduardo Romero and Tony Jacklin. Current projects are ongoing in the UK, USA (with Donald Steel), Argentina (with Eduardo Romero), Italy, Morocco, Macedonia, Poland, Czech Republic and Albania, ranging from ‘pay-and-play’ golf courses to major tourism-related residential/leisure and resort developments.